


The Choices of Lady Éowyn

by Zdenka



Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Community: halfamoon, Gen, Poetry, alliterative verse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-04
Updated: 2018-03-04
Packaged: 2019-03-26 21:26:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13866324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zdenka/pseuds/Zdenka
Summary: Éowyn decides to join the Ride of the Rohirrim to Minas Tirith. A poem in alliterative verse.





	The Choices of Lady Éowyn

**Author's Note:**

> Started for last year’s [Half a Moon](https://halfamoon.dreamwidth.org/) Prompt Challenge Day 6: Choices, and finished for the Mini-Moon challenge this year, Day 1: War and Peace.

Long have I waited, lingering silent,  
my stride shortened to steps that faltered,  
in bitter silence biting back words,  
sought by a craven with crooked mind.

In grief I saw greatness wither,  
the House of Eorl dishonored, failing.  
Death and danger to dear ones came;  
deedless I sat, sunk in mourning.

Shall I always, till old age claim me,  
be left behind, the hearth keeping?  
Left behind and love denied me,   
the love I sought and life with glory?

Where will wants not, a way opens;  
in Rider’s garb I go to battle.  
With helm and hauberk, swift horse and sword,  
I stand arrayed—stay me who dares.

Gladly I greet the grim swordplay;  
pain and danger daunt not my heart.  
Here is my choice: a hero’s deed,  
a hero’s death if doom calls me.

Faithful-faithless, I follow unsought;  
Éomund’s daughter with Éomund’s son,  
Théodwyn’s daughter with Théodwyn’s brother  
rides to Mundburg—red flare the beacons.

The night deepens, darkness falls round us,  
men like phantoms fade in shadow.  
Let hooves thunder and horns resound,  
though silence take all songs hereafter.

**Author's Note:**

> “Where will wants not, a way opens” - a proverb quoted by Éowyn in _The Return of the King_
> 
> Éomund’s daughter, Théodwyn’s daughter - Éowyn
> 
> Éomund’s son - Éomer
> 
> Théodwyn’s brother - Théoden
> 
> Mundburg - the Rohirrim’s name for Minas Tirith


End file.
